I know, I know. First post after the holidays and it’s not even remotely related to the holidays. I’ve come close a couple of times to posting a holiday recap, it just hasn’t happened yet.
Moving along…
The online magazine _The Edge_ asked 120 scientists (and other assorted interesting people) what they believed in, even though they couldn’t prove. The “ensuing answers”:http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_print.html make a good read, but here’s my current favorite:
Alexander Vilenkin, a physicist at the Institute of Cosmology, Tufts University, “believes the universe is infinite”:http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_print.html#vilenkin. I’m going to go try paraphrasing his theory–my profound apologies to Mr. Vilenkin if I screw up.
Since the universe is infinite, there are an infinite number of regions just like ours, and an infinite number of Planet Earths. Within a particular region there are only a finite number of histories (i.e., “the way things happened”). So we have an infinite number of Planet Earths and only so many ways things could have happened on Planet Earth. Thus there are an infinite number of Earths that have the same history as us. There are also an infinite number of Earths with a slightly different history. To quote Mr. Vilenkin, “So, if you are not satisfied with the result of the presidential elections, don’t despair: you candidate has won on an infinite number of earths.”
See? No need to migrate to Canada. Just take comfort knowing that somewhere out there an infinite number of Kerrys are getting ready for their inauguration ceremony.
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